What Is A “Dotard”? Kim Jong-un’s Donald Trump Insult Explained

It’s an oldie but it’s a goodie.

The escalating war of words being Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump is showing no signs of abating, with the North Korean leader weighing in with a damning assessment of the American president.

This latest round of verbal sparring has most people a little confused though and, for once, Trump is not the one to blame.

It all started when Trump branded Kim a “Rocket Man” on a “suicide mission” following several weeks of escalating tension, with North Korea testing out two intercontinental ballistic missiles and two ballistic missiles in recent months.

Trump even threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea, in the event of them launching an attack on foreign soil. But Kim has fired back in extraordinarily wordy fashion, describing Trump as a “mentally deranged US dotard.”

Its Kim’s use of the word “dotard” that has got most people talking, mainly because no one seems to know what the word actually means. Some assumed he meant to say “retard” which, while not cool, would have actually been a word used by people and still a part of the English language.

However, a few quick Google searches confirmed something surprising. Not only is dotard a real word with a real meaning, but Kim is arguably spot on in describing Trump as one.

Dating back to Middle England and the years 1350 to 1400, dotard may not be in common use but, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, it means the following:

“A person, especially an old person, exhibiting a decline in mental faculties; a weak-minded or foolish old person.”

There’s even a link of sorts to the President, with a search of Urban Dictionary revealing that George W. Bush was previously labelled a dotard with the meaning revealed as:

“An idiot, simpleton president who can’t take his eyes off the teleprompter.”

Okay, so that’s not really Trump, is it? He tends to go completely off script rather than sticking to the teleprompter.